Mammoth cave area

[SemperParatus]

All you guys from KY - can you give me some scoop on this locale as a possible week-long high adventure destination.

 

I see canoeing, caving, rapelling, hiking...what else? Enough to keep us busy for a week?

[EagleInKY]

Not sure if I'd call it "High Adventure", but there's a decent amount of stuff to do. The National Park campground is nice. Only one showerhouse, and you have to pay for it. It's great for a weekend.

 

There are several cave tours, ranging from the simple to the serious spelunking. I saw a group of venturers go in the morning and come out that evening. They were covered in mud from head to toe. You could easily spend 2 days doing cave activities.

 

There are several others caves in the area, if your guys are really into spelunking, you could visit some of those. There's one down in Bowling Green that has a river and a boat cruise in it. That looked pretty neat, but we didn't make it down to it.

 

The Green River is right there. Decent canoeing, but no rapids to speak of. You also have to be very careful about underwater caves. We nearly lost a canoe in one.

 

There are a few places to climb and rapel. I haven't done any in that area, so I can't tell you much about that. There are some decent trails.

 

The Corvette Museum is also there, your guys would think that is cool.

 

There's a few other touristy things and Kentucky Down Under, which is geared for more the Cub Scout age (has Australian animals).

[Proud Eagle]

I should note the nearest Scout Camp to there is Camp Wildcat Hollow in Russelville, KY. There isn't much at Wildcat (or the rest of the Badgett Scout Reservation) that couldn't be found at some other camp, but I thought I should mention it.

[SemperParatus]

Thank you very much for the scouting report!

[packsaddle]

There are so many caves I sometimes wonder why there IS any surface water in that state. We had a great trip there a while back. There are several really great tours through Mammoth. There is another group camp site available nearby at CrystalOnyx Cave. It's located right across the interstate from Mammoth Cave and very convenient. Their site rental rate is also very reasonable.

http://www.crystalonyxcave.com/

The group site is right on top of a hill overlooking everything. It is a primitive site with picnic tables and big enough for a small troup (maybe 10 or so tents) (bathroom facilities are down the hill). And their cave is pretty nice as well. Have a great trip!

[Sylvar]

Semper,

if you are going there for a week you should side trip over to the Land between the Lakes area. Good hiking in that area and you can take in the Scout Museum in Murray while your at it.

 

Sylvar

[Greeneagle5]

Sylvar,

Excellent Scout side-trip suggestion to LBL, unfortunately the BSA Museum left Kentucky for Texas about 10 years ago.

[hops_scout]

GreenEagle, it moved in 1999 or 2000. Our troop went down to Camp Manchester and made a trip to the museum. I have not been there though. That was the last summer it was in KY. Something around those dates above.

[Greeneagle5]

Sorry for the length-of-time error hops_scout.....chalk it up to a *senior moment*on my part. I do wish the museum had stayed in Murray !!

G5

[hops_scout]

I'm nit-picky. I know:)

 

I wish it would have stayed there too. Thats like a 4 hour drive for me instead of 10+ to Texas;)

[Proud Eagle]

I could find out when it moved since I have a final season patch from the old museum (actually a couple) in my collection. We took a trip their during lodge fall fellowship. I joined the lodge in 1999, and I would guess the museum moved in perhaps 2001.

 

In any case, if you do go to the LBL area, consider a stop at Camp Roy C. Manchester, which is located on Kentucky Lake.

[catbirdwiz]

I am from the Louisville area, and frankly I would be bored spending more than a day at Mammoth Cave (seen one cave...). There is a "wild cave" tour that I would highly recommend. Mammoth has very few "pretty" features that other caves have. Some of the southern Indiana caves (Squire Boone, Marengo, etc) may be more photogenic. Mammoth is significant because it is the longest. There is some nice canoeing on the Green River which flows thru the park. As for the park above ground, it is not all that noteworthy. I would opt for a week canoeing at Dale Hollow Lake on the KY-Tenn border. It is very clean and does not get the boat traffic (Ohio Navy) that overwhelms other lakes. To the east is the Big South Fork--now there is high adventure! White water, natural arches, cliffs and lots of hiking. To the north is the Red River Gorge; likewise spectacular but I don't know if I would want to spend a week there. Be advised that Ky summers are hot and humid and we don't have the high cool mountains like in the Smokies or West Virginia. But we do have chiggers and poison ivy!